Buddah Desmond Wins 1st Place in Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest

Happy to announce that I recently won 1st place in Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest! You can read my interview and winning poem entitled, “Ghosts, Ghostbusting History + Visible / Invisible Lives (Freedom is Ours)” on the The PBS Blog. This theme for this year’s contest was “Freedom.” 

Major kudos and praise to the winners Daphne Ayo (for “Uncaged”), Renita Siqueira (for “Allowed to Exist”), and Rebecca Whitman (for “Moment of Truth”), and all of the participants!

Much gratitude to Yecheilyah and the committee for the honor. So grateful to you for providing a platform for us to share our work about timely, relevant themes and do it in a way that is enlightening, encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting.

It’s a POETRY THANG!!!!

~ Buddah Desmond

New Project – shifting from the inside out: love poems – Out Today!

Cover of shifting from the inside out: love poems by Buddah Desmond

I’m happy to announce the release of my latest project, shifting from the inside out: love poems today. This collection contains some of my favorite love poems from my last two projects, Exotic Shifter and From The Inside Out: A Poetry Collection, along with some new poems. The title is a play on the titles of the aforementioned projects, and serves to illustrate the notion that love is an inside job. It manifests from the inside out. And when we are loved, love ourselves, and love others, it changes us. 

With it being Black History Month, Love Month, and my birthday month, I thought to myself—why not put out a special project and offer it for free?

To check out my latest project, go to: https://bit.ly/BDez-shifting-from-the-inside-out

Feel free to share and let me know your thoughts.

Happy BHM! Happy V-Day! 

Much love and many blessings!

~ Buddah Desmond 

Buddah Desmond’s Poem, The Daily Motions, Featured in Mixed Mag

Elated to announce that my poem, The Daily Motions, has been published in the lated issue (Issue 12) of Mixed Mag. The Daily Motions ponders how to get beyond going with the motions in love and relationships. Much gratitude to this platform for the opportunity to share this piece with the world. 

~ Buddah Desmond

Buddah Desmond’s Poem, Couch Session (Today’s Not That Day), Featured on Osamasetorbest.com

Happy to announce one of my latest poems, Couch Session (Today Is Not That Day), has been published on Osamasetorbest.com. Couch Session (Today Is Not That Day) is about how one is dealing with a recent breakup. Much gratitude for this platform and the opportunity to share this poem with the world. 

~ Buddah Desmond 

Takeaways from the 2014 Conversations and Connections Conference

This past weekend, I had the chance to attend the Conversations and Connections Conference in Washington, DC.  Organized by Barrelhouse magazine and sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Master of Arts in Writing program, this was not the typical conference. Conversations and Connections is designed to help writers better their craft by providing practical advice on writing and publishing in “a comfortable, congenial environment where you can meet other writers, editors and publishers” (Conversations and Connections).

Panel sessions were varied in topics that were universal and genre-specific. Panelists/presenters typically had an informal and candid style which was most engaging. The keynote speaker was award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Marisa de los Santos (Love Walked In, Belong to Me, and Falling Together), whose charismatic, humorous, and insightful talk was a major hit with attendees.

One of the other highlights of the conference was the Speed Dating with Editors session.  During this session, writers had the chance to get feedback on their work, find out about valuable writing resources, and learn about where they should consider sending their work.

For $70, the Conversations and Connections conference is a great value for any writer committed to enhancing their craft, getting published, and connecting with other writers, editors, and publishers.

Here are some takeaways from the sessions I attended:

Get Off Your Ass and Write: Stop Making Excuses and Start Being Productive (Rosalia Scalia)

  1. Always have a notebook and pen handy, as inspiration can hit at any moment.
  2. Discipline is about practicing good habits. It’s not about forcing yourself to do things you don’t want to do.
  3. Make time to write each day.
  4. Know your craft. Study it. Research it. Practice it.
  5. Read widely and without prejudice. This is what feeds the well.
  6. Characters drive the plot. You need to know your characters well. Know what choices they will make to move the story along.
  7. Taking a different point of view may help you tackle problems you encounter with your writing.
  8. Learn how to use the tools to become the writer you want to be.
  9. Create a relationship with yourself. Make a commitment to your work in order to achieve your goals.
  10. The ultimate goal with writing is raising it to the universal level.

The chemistry of the poetic line: Line Breaks and Poetry (Jim Warner)

  1. Line breaks affect how you read/hear poetry.
  2. Originally, the form of a poem was determined by line lengths.
  3. There are typically two ways to interpret line length: the way the head sees the line and the way the line is spoken.
  4. The goal of poetry: to channel the original energy of the source of inspiration for the poem.
  5. Make a break that is not obvious. Go against the breath.
  6. The chemistry of the line comes in revision.
  7. Know why (and be able to explain) the choices you make in your writing.

Keynote Speaker: Marisa de los Santos

  1. Poetry foregrounds the quality [of music] in language.
  2. Listen to your characters (this is your primary job).
  3. Set out a time to write that works well with your schedule.
  4. Be present in whatever you’re doing (be in the moment).
  5. Everything feeds everything else.
  6. Every book makes its own rules.
  7. If you’re having trouble with a story, you may be having trouble with the characters.
  8. You walk with faith that your story is going to lead the way.
  9. Find your way and do it.
  10. There’s no one right way to write.

Is Fiction Dead?: The Rise of Creative Nonfiction (Cathy Alter, Jenny Sullivan, and Tim Wendel)

Scenes

  1. Good scenes get readers involved immediately.
  2. To write a good scene, think of how you would put it in an email to a dear friend or family member.
  3. You can never go wrong with descriptions. Descriptions put the reader there with you.
  4. Create a sense of space that people can relate to.
  5. Interview others about events/experiences that you’re writing about to make them come to life, to make them real.
  6. Precise details can make a scene pop.
  7. Use attribution.
  8. Research.

Character

  1. Well drawn characters are three-dimensional.
  2. First person narration, if it’s necessary, lends credibility to what you’re writing. It creates authenticity.
  3. The goal: to tell the story without the need to be in it.
  4. Be flexible.
  5. Think about writing in third person. It’s more interesting to write from someone else’s point of view.
  6. Action = character. What they do on the page creates who they are.
  7. If the action is not building, the story won’t go anywhere.

Dialogue

  1. Dialogue builds characters beyond what descriptions can do.
  2. Can tell you a lot.
  3. Let the character’s voice come through so you don’t pass judgment.

Revision

  1. Be ruthless with your work and think about what is truly useful to your story. If it makes it harder for the reader to follow along, take it out.
  2. Read your work aloud.
  3. Scrub, scrub, scrub. If it sounds like (or is) a cliché, take it out.
  4. Take a break away from your work. You’ll see things you did not see before that you can improve upon.
  5. Don’t wear your writer and editor hats at the same time. It can damage your voice.

Day 84: Inspiration from Toni Morrison

Image courtesy of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards site.

People say to write about what you know… I’m here to tell you, no one wants to read that, ’cause you don’t know anything… So write about something you don’t know. And don’t be scared, ever. ~ Toni Morrison, USA Today

We find comfort in writing about the things we are most comfortable withthose things we find most familiar.  While there’s nothing wrong with it, one has to wonderwhere’s the challenge?  Where’s the risk?  In the long term, what’s the growth potential for you as a writer?  What will the audience truly learn or gain from you in the process? 

It’s so easy to get caught up into the formulas for writing, especially if they’ve brought you a fair amount of success.  It’s safer that way, isn’t it?  But as creative individualswe thrive when we’re challenged.  We thrive when we’re put to the test.  We thrive when we let go of our inhibitions, take on the unknown, and, without over-thinking, simply create that which fuels our souls. 

You learn more about yourself, others, and the world when you step outside of the realm you call home.  Get unsafe.  Move beyond the known.  Embrace the unknown.  Be inspired by the unknown. There’s no telling what magnificence may come about.